TRIACYLGLYCEROL ANALYSIS BY HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHY ATMOSPHERIC-PRESSURE CHEMICAL-IONIZATION MASS-SPECTROMETRY - CREPIS-APLINA AND VERNONIA-GALAMENSIS SEED OILS

Unusual seed oils having significance for chemical synthesis, Crepis a lpina, or with fatty acids which contain functional groups important i n the preparation of plastics, Vernonia galamensis, were analyzed by a new reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography-atmospheric pressure chemical ionization mass spectrometry technique. Using this method, we have identified 16 triacylglycerols in the Crepis alpina oi l and 18 triacylglycerols in Vernonia galamensis oil and showed greate r sensitivity for detection of and improved identification of triacylg lycerols compared to previous analyses using the techniques of reverse d-phase and silver ion high performance liquid chromatography with a f lame ionization detector.The most abundant Crepis alpina triacylglycer ols were: linoleoydicrepenynoyglycerol (33.0%), tricrepenynoyl (32.3%) , palmitoyldicrepenynoyl (11.5%), dilinoleoylcrepenynoyl (6.7%) glycer ols. The remaining triacylglycerols occurred at five or less mole perc ent abundance. The most abundant Vernonia galamensis triacylglycerols were: trivernoloyl (43.3%), linoleoyldivernoloyl (21.3%), oleoyldivern oloyl (7.9%), palmitoyldivernoloyl (8.2%) and stearoyldivernoloyl (6.4 %) glycerols. The remaining triacylglycerols occurred at four or less mole percent abundance. These studies provided new knowledge concernin g the triacylglycerol composition of these oils and show that the atmo spheric pressure chemical ionization technique is suitable for mass sp ectral identification of neutral molecules which do not contain a char geable functional group.